#creative loafing

[johnschneiderblog]

The art of doing nothing

We owned a hammock once and actually installed it, lashing it to a couple of oak trees in a shady spot between our cottage and the lake.

With the shade, the breeze off the lake, the whisper of waves caressing the beach, it was an ideal spot to loaf.

I tried it once or twice. No more than that. I guess I'm just not a hammock person . At least I wasn't at the time.

In fact, I've never been much good at idling in general. Too task-oriented. My wandering mind always landed on the chores I could be crossing off my list.

But I'm getting better. In recent years. I've taken up the study of creative loafing - dong absolutely nothing. In the middle of the day!

You could call it contemplation, or meditation, or living in the moment. You could call it breathing. You could call it wasting time.

I call it rejuvenation.

(iStock photo)

[catalisst]

Cold champagne and cozy blankets.

[jdunlevy]

From the archives: A roundup of old “Did you read” blog posts

I've gone back and gathered links to old Chicago Reader “Did You Read __________?” blog posts that I contributed items to from 2012 to 2016. These posts were all “authored” by “Reader staff” with attibution to the individual contributors appearing in the body text next to their contributed items. So like some other things with the top-level byline done in this way, they don't appear on individual contributors’ author archives pages.

I got the post URLs using Google Search and then wrote a PHP script pulling all the URLs from the Search results into an array and fetching each post’s headline, subheadline, and publication date, sorting it all in reverse chronological order, and then outputting a useful list of links in nice HTML for presentation on the web. It’s probably most but not all of these posts that I contributed to.

(Among possibly other things, this let me add these to my Muckrack portfolio.)

“Did You Read __________?” [snapshot in the Wayback Machine at archive.org] was a topic series—you can think of it simply as a blog—that started in January 2012 in The Bleader blog (previously “The Blog,” sort of a single-company blog network or parent blog under which individual blogs or sub-blogs existed) on chicagoreader.com that ran initially as a more-or-less daily place for Reader staff to share interesting things, usually articles, from elsewhere on the web, sort of quick-hit link sharing. It shared links to “stories that fascinate, alarm, amuse, or inspire us.”

It was the successor to “What the Reader’s Reading” [Wayback Machine snapshot], a regularly updated feed of links from early 2010 to late 2011 powered by a news-aggregation platform called Publish2 that the Creative Loafing folks were especially excited about but did actually do some cool microblogging things including tagging and categorizing content and, if I recall, also had some rudimentary social media-type features built in. Links shared this way were presented in various places on the site, especially on the Reader homepage and on section-specific posts (e.g. music-tagged links [Wayback Machine] on music posts) and on section table of contents [Wayback Machine] pages.

Later, the idea of daily “Did you read” posts as compilations of staff contributions was dropped and freelancer Kate Shepherd wrote all the posts for the rest of the series from January 2016 until it was discontinued after Valentine’s Day in February 2018—at a particularly tumultuous time in the Reader’s history.

[fullcravings]

Hidden Surprise Cinnamon Loaf (Vegan)

[tilbageidanmark]

Tsujio Ippei's bread wrapping paper

[null-entity]

MALT Looooooaaaffff!

Model: Me.

Photographer: The Remote Camera Trigger.

If you want to help support me and get awesome stuff like early access/polls & pose requests Become A Patron / DA Subscriber or you can check out my Ko-Fi store for exclusive stock!

Read My Rules Before You Use My Stock.

[quadrantadvisor]

I would adopt Jack Spicer. I would support his evil schemes specifically because they were his only form or regular socialization. I'd be like, "When are all of your little friends coming over?" and he would be like, "You mean my ENEMIES who I am trying to DESTROY!?" and I'd say, "Oh you're so imaginative sweetie 😊" and he'd say, "please stop letting my mortal enemies into my evil lair" and I'd be like "I made this zucchini bread for them, make sure you give it to them next time you see them" and he'd be like "okay" and then he would eat the entire zucchini bread by himself.

[shinybulbasaur]

TWO OF THEM!!! ft. little vash for scale, lol

my lovely friend wanted a knives loaf and who am I if not a vessel for plushie creation. stuffed animals is my passion

loaf design by @kniveswoods, loaf vash pattern is here: (x)

feel free to shoot me a message if you'd be interested in commissioning a loaf of your own!

[brokehorrorfan]

Broke Horror Fan presents Onyx the Fortuitous and the Talisman of Souls' soundtrack on vinyl and cassette in conjunction with Witter Entertainment and Fortuitous Films.

The score is composed by Matt Mahaffey (Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) and includes Onyx's rendition of Meat Loaf's "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)" plus guest appearances by Kwamé and Jason Threm.

Three vinyl variants are available: glow-in-the-dark with white splatter featuring art by Matt Ryan Tobin (limited to 250), glow-in-the-dark with black and green splatter featuring art by Tobin (limited to 250), and black featuring art by Phantom City Creative.

The cassette is available with green (limited to 250) and standard black shells. Both versions feature a six-panel insert with cover art by Lukas Ketner.

The records are housed in gatefold packaging and include a digital download. Autographed vinyl signed by writer-director-star Andrew Bowser and discounted bundles are also available. Pre-orders are expected to ship in January.

[shimmering-spoon]

[techcat]

Sometimes you just REALLY CARE about a guy. It might not even be your own guy.

But oh my god that guy can fill your brain and bring such joys. Inspire creations. Inspire MORE GUYS.

And that's so fucking special. Y'know? Fandom has lots of bad moments, all kinds. But at the core, there's a type of love that's hard to explain if you haven't seen it before. It's beautiful and exciting and I'm just very glad that it exists.

Thank you creators. Thank you people taking an idea and running with it on an unexpected triathlon across fandoms. Thank you cosplayers. Thank you fans. Thank you every single person who has so much to infodump about an obscure guy and thank you to all who listen and experience the Joy.

[bsobypnk]

My BRAND🗯️…

[torina--archelda]

I know it has been said a bunch of times already but: I am so in love with the concept of fandom.

You also can't stop thinking about these fictional characters? Me neither, that's why I wrote essays about every little detail you might have missed, so you can keep coming back to your happy place and find new stuff every time. All you would like to do is loose yourself in visuals of your happy place? Here, look at the art I poured all my time and soul into. You crave more stories? Don't worry, I did, too, so here are pages and pages full of your favourite characters.

And then, then, someone reaches out to you and says: "I really love your creations, here have this thing I did that was inspired by your work".

How beautiful is that?

[null-entity]

Blue team has stock the briefcase!

Model: Me.

Photographer: The Remote Camera Trigger.

If you want to help support me and get awesome stuff like early access/polls & pose requests Become A Patron or you can check out my Ko-Fi store for exclusive stock!

Read My Rules Before You Use My Stock.

[sulfadimethoxine]

They will treasure it and fight over who gets to keep it in their room

Surprise! They wanted to bring you this pumpkin and when I say they bring you I mean sun makes a cute pose as moon carries all the weight

Awww! Thanks for the pumpkin! I am sending Sun and Moon back to you with something we quickly put together over here.

Hopefully Sun will be a little more helpful on the return trip.

[literaryvein-reblogs]

more words for worldbuilding (pt. 2)

ANIMALS

Animal: adult, beast, buck, cat, chicken, cur, father, frog, goat, half-breed, horse, hybrid, litter, mongrel, monster, parasite, pig, stock, young

Bird: bird, chicken

Fish: aquarium, aquatic

Group of animals: drove, herd, insect, pack, stock, team

Insect: bee, grub, pest

Limb or appendage of: bill, coat, feather, fur, mop, pelt, scale, trunk, wing

Mammal: cat, dog, father, goat, hound, mother, pig

CLOTHING

Accessory: bag, belt, buckle, collar, pocketbook, purse, satchel

Clothing: apparel, array, bathing suit, cape, clothes/clothing, costume, dress, dungarees, falsies, frock, garment, girdle, gown, hat, jacket, negligee, nylons, pajamas, pants, quilt, scarf, skirt, suit, swimsuit, thing/things, trappings, underwear, veil, wash, wrap

Part: collar, crown, pocket, strand, tiara

State of dress: bareness, nudity, try on/try out, wear

FOOD & DRINK

Beverage: alcohol, coffee, drink, potable

Beverage, alcoholic: beer, liquor

Change in: curdle, turn

Food: appetizer, bite, brew, bun, casserole, condiment, cracker, diet, doughnut, feed, frosting, grub, helping, hors d’oeuvre, leftover, macaroni, meat, nosh, nurture, nutrition, pastry, produce, refreshment, seasoning, stew, subsistence, support, sweet, treat, vittles

Food part: morsel, nip, taste, tidbit

Meal: banquet, bite, buffet, diet, fare, picnic, repast, spread, table

Produced from animal: comfort food, feed, food, frosting, grub, hero, macaroni, sandwich, submarine, vittles

Produced from plant: condiment, doughnut, loaf, pastry, produce, sweet

Quality of: acerbity, baked, done, edible, mellow, nourishing, perishable, rare, ripe, salty, short, stale, strong, sweet, unappetizing, weak, wholesome

NATURAL RESOURCES

Electricity: beam, spark

Energy: electricity, fuel, nuclear energy, petroleum, power

Expression of energy: blast, bonfire, chill, concussion, discharge, fire, flash, noise, thunder

Natural event: eclipse, meteorology, weather

Resources: fuel, resource, rock, substance

PLANTS

Flower: bloom, bouquet, flower

Fruit: berry, produce

Growth or death of: bloom, bud, germinate, growth, wilt, wither

Part: bark, branch, cereal, flavoring, foliage, grain, juice, limb, nut, pod, scion, shell, stalk, trunk

Plant: algae, bramble, bush, crop, fossil, grass, harvest, hybrid, organism, produce, wreath

Tree: timber, wood/woods

Vegetable: produce

WEATHER

Object connected with: avalanche, breeze, climate, cold, dew, film, flurry, frost, gust, haze, hurricane, meteorology, moisture, puff, thunder, weather, wind

Quality of: breezy, clear, close, crisp, dismal, fair, fiercely, fine, furious, gloomy, hazy, humid, intimidating, misty, oppressive, raw, rugged, soft, stormy, sultry, temperate, thick, tranquil, turbulent, wild, wintry

Type of: blizzard, cloud, drizzle, fog, hail, mist, puff, rain, shower, tempest, torrent, tremor

NOTE

Excerpted from Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Updated and Expanded 3rd Edition, in Dictionary Form, edited by The Princeton Language Institute.

The above are concepts classified according to subject and usage. It not only helps writers and thinkers to organize their ideas but leads them from those very ideas to the words that can best express them.

It was, in part, created to turn an idea into a specific word. By linking together the main entries that share similar concepts, the index makes possible creative semantic connections between words in our language, stimulating thought and broadening vocabulary. Writing Resources PDFs

Source ⚜ Writing Basics & Refreshers ⚜ On Vocabulary